1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to color selectors, and in particular to a simple but effective device for selecting the color (as well as the sheen and finish) of coatings and other characteristics of surfaces, such surfaces including exposed grout and other mortar used for holding tiles, bricks, mosaics and the like to a support surface, or of coverings such as stucco for use on support surfaces.
2. Description of Prior Art
The color of grout for holding tile, brick, mosaics and the like (“the covering elements”) is important cosmetically, since the exposed grout is readily apparent and can cover small or large areas, depending on the area the covering elements cover, the size of covering elements and the space between the covering elements where the grout is exposed and visible. The simplest way is to pick a color from a group of colors which the person feels is appropriate, but this is haphazard, and could as often as not lead to mistakes. There are large number of colors of grout currently available, and one conventional way for selecting color is by means of printed brochures, which are typically referred to as color cards, upon which are glued small strips of colors representative of the grout colors available from a particular company. These strips tend to be small, often from 2 to 3 inches, and cannot be laid between the covering elements. Therefore, the user can only imagine how the color would appear since the user cannot place the color card along a reasonable length of the covering elements. Color cards are relatively inexpensive and can be given to prospective customers, but are of limited usefulness due to their small size, and the inability to insert them between covering elements to see how they will look in use. Color cards are provided under the corporate names Laticrete (headquartered in Bethany, Conn.) and Mapei (headquartered in Milan, Italy) and Custom Building Products (headquartered in Seal Beach, Calif.) among others.
Another grout color selector according to the prior art are three sided plastic molded channels, which are essentially molded parallelepiped color plastic blocks having colors corresponding to different grout colors. The color blocks generally are arranged in an open box, and the user selects respective blocks, places the selected block between the covering elements, and determines whether the color of the block is appropriate. While the color blocks are more effective in use than color sheets, they do have serious limitations. For one, each set of blocks is fairly expensive—too expensive to give to each prospective customer. Each set, which may include 12-32 blocks, would cost at least several dollars per box. Typically, the grout suppliers have sets of blocks from one or more grout suppliers, but the ultimate purchaser rarely would be given a set of blocks due to the expense of a set of blocks. Another problem with the set of blocks as grout color selectors is that they are fairly short in length, and of fixed width. Being short in length means that they only indicate the appearance of the prospective grout color for a very limited area, leaving it to the user's or designer's imagination as to how the grout color would look for the full length of a pair of covering elements, or over a more extensive length of the prospective grout. A further problem with the grout blocks is that they do not show variations in texture that occur in grouts as used. Because of the cost, limited length, lack of texture variance found in grouts, blocks of material showing the various grout colors are of limited usefulness. Products for such color blocks are sold under the trademarks Tec® made by TEC of Arlington Heights, Ill., Auto-Color® made by Auto Color Co., Inc. of Marietta, Ga. and TexRite® made by Texas Cement Products, Inc. of Houston Tex. among others.
There is a need for inexpensive, three-dimensional color, sheen and/or finish selectors for the characteristics of various surfaces of many types of materials, such as mortar of all types, painted surfaces, material for covering surfaces such as stucco, various types of aggregates and smooth, non-aggregate surfaces.